In 1984, Leica introduced the M6, a camera that – like other cameras of the day – used film. It became the iconic model of the range: a small, lightweight, discreet machine for capturing great images, in many ways a summation of what had made this German company so popular with photographers since it invented the 35mm camera in 1924.

Of course, that was then, and though few would have predicted it at the time, the tidal wave of digital photography was already gathering strength – indeed 1984 had seen an increasing number of experiments with digital images. The M6’s days turned out to be numbered.

However, between 1984 and 2002, Leica produced 175,000 handmade M6s, and, as Andrea Pacella, Leica’s director of global marketing, says, they created their own mythology: ‘These cameras have been used a lot. They have lived a life of travels, events, moments – decisive moments, as a great photographer [Henri Cartier-Bresson, a Leica user] once called them; they have seen moments of history, recorded moments of history, they have seen and recorded the greatest personalities of our time. But also, they have become the camera of choice of amateurs, passionate photographers, street photographers. I think it has become the iconic camera of every street photographer.’

Now, the M6 is back as a glorious contemporary film camera, almost identical to the original, but with a few upgrades, such as a milled solid-brass top cover treated with a lacquer that is abrasion-resistant as a more robust replacement for the old die-cast zinc one.

Pacella asks the question that will be on many people’s minds: ‘Is there a justification today for a Leica M film camera?’ He answers himself: ‘Today the M system in its digital and analogue versions is the backbone of our company, and it remains one of the most beloved – I do not even say cameras – but ways of taking pictures.’

The M system refers to the German term “Messucher”, which describes a combination of both rangefinder and viewfinder, which gives, literally, a bigger view of the subject, allowing for more freedom to engage with the whole image.

The fact is that, though Leica discontinued the M6 20 years ago, as it embraced a digital future, it has never stopped making film cameras. There was the M7, the replacement for theM6, which was on sale until 2018, and the MP, a purely mechanical camera (no automated exposure) that launched in 2003, and the MA from 2014, which is so analogue it doesn’t even have a light meter.

But the M6 is the first new film camera to be launched for eight years, and has been brought back to acknowledge the growing trend for analogue photography that is seeing many professionals and amateurs either returning to film, or taking to it for the first time. The analogy with the uptake of vinyl in the audio sphere is one way to look at it: a reflection of an interest, particularly among the young, of having a new experience, no doubt enhanced by the romance of nostalgia.

It is not just about the difference in quality of the output that is leading this new interest, says Pacella, though as with vinyl versus digital there is a consensus that the results attained using film are very different. But there is also the appeal of a conscious, slowed-down process of making pictures in this way. With only 36 shots available on a roll, you think more carefully and compose more mindfully when using film, he believes; it is as much about the experience as the outcome.

Though there are some technical upgrades in the new M6 – among them a modern version of the Leica M rangefinder, a battery warning indicator, a coating on the optical surfaces to combat stray light and an illuminating red dot to show correct exposure as well as the original arrow symbols – the camera really is true to the 1984 model. It even features the red Leitz logo, a reference to Ernst Leitz, who helped shape the future of photography when he founded the Leitz brand in 1869. This would become Leica, and it would be Leitz’s son, Ernst Leitz II, who would introduce 35mm photography to the world.

leica-camera.com